As reliance on modern technology continues to grow, content providers are beginning to utilize new avenues for presenting content to the public. Instead of relying solely on television, radio, newspapers, billboards, magazines, etc., content providers are depending more and more on computers, cell phones, personal digital assistants, portable gaming units, and other electronic devices to present content to the public. These devices execute applications which allow users to access and view content. One such application is a network browser which allows users to access websites and view content presented by a content provider over a network, such as the Internet.
The Internet is a wide area network that connects hundreds of thousands of computers and smaller sub-networks world-wide. A common form of presenting content over the Internet is through a website. A website is a collection of one or more web pages, each of which presents a specific set of content to a user. Every website includes a home web page, which acts as an entrance portal to the website by providing users with a basic understanding of the website's sponsor, purpose, and content. Website content providers can include businesses, governmental entities, educational organizations, and individuals. The content provided varies drastically depending on the content provider, and can include streaming video, music, links to other websites, internal advertisements and promotions, external advertisements, games, how to information, news, sports, weather, website navigation information, retail products, directions, contact information, and just about anything else imaginable.
Users can access the content presented on websites by using a network browser on any number of electronic devices. Network browsers allow a user to view and interact with websites through a network browser application window. In addition to network browsers, content providers utilize many other applications to present content to users. For instance, media player applications, word processing applications, document viewing applications, gaming applications, editing applications, electronic mail applications, etc. can also be used to present a broad array of content to users through an application window.
Regardless of the application through which content is presented to a user, content providers have great incentive to present as much content in an application window area as possible. This incentive can arise from the desire to maximize advertising revenue by including multiple advertisements in the application window, the desire to self-promote one's products and services, and the goal of providing the most complete, accurate, and up-to-date information available. Basic human nature also plays a roll. For instance, in the context of a web page, if a user is not able to find what he/she is looking for after a cursory examination, he/she may simply give up and look elsewhere for the information. Similarly, a user may not want to be burdened with having to scroll down or across a web page to find information. Thus, website providers have incentive to maximize the content presented on each web page and compress it all into a single screen. As a result, application windows are bursting at the seams with content.
Within an application window, users navigate, explore options, and view different content by activating links, activating tabs, activating drop down menus, causing pop-up text or windows to appear, opening additional application windows, scrolling, etc. In doing so, the view of presented content often becomes obstructed to the user. For instance, in the context of a web page, if a user activates a drop down menu, any content in the location under which the menu appears becomes obstructed. Similarly, if a user switches from a first tab to a second tab, the content of the first tab is replaced by the content from the second tab, even though the content of the first tab may be high priority content. In general, almost any user action taken in an application window, including opening additional application windows, can result in obstructed content. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that content providers try to maximize the amount of content presented in the application window.
Application programmers can attempt to alleviate the problem of obstructed content, and particularly the obstruction of high priority content, by statically placing such content in remote locations of an application window that will never become obstructed or by statically placing such content in central locations of the application window and designing the rest of the application to ensure that no obstruction occurs. However, both of these approaches are flawed and impractical. Statically placing high priority content in remote locations of an application window is disadvantageous because application users may never see the content and are much more likely to ignore it. Statically placing high priority content in central locations within an application window, while ensuring that the content never becomes obstructed, results in an awkward and non-user friendly application. Users expect the content with which they are interested to be centrally and aesthetically displayed and care little about the content provider's perspective with respect to content priority.
Thus, there is a need for a tool which allows a content provider to consistently present application users with an unobstructed view of high priority content. Further, there is a need for a tool which allows a content provider to prioritize content such that content of a higher priority can displace content of a lower priority when the higher priority content will become obstructed. Further yet, there is a need for a tool which allows a content provider to ensure that high priority content will always be presented in the most beneficial portion of an application window.